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Monday, May 16, 2011

Chilton on Managing Migrants

Another article, again not specifically legal history, but which speaks to important issues in the history of regulation is Lisa Chilton's "Managing Migrants: Toronto, 1820–1880," which appears in the June 2011 issue of the Canadian Historical Review. (Online, but not free, sadly--fortunately most readers of this blog will have access through their institutional affiliations.) Her discussion of the pluralistic, inter-jurisdictional aspects of the regulation of immigrants promises to be particularly interesting.

Here's the relevant (for legal history) part of the abstract:

This article uses Toronto as a case study to trace the evolution of the state's interaction with migrants from a different starting point. It emphasizes the importance of the 1820–80 period – a period in which major state initiatives were put in place to regulate the flow of immigration more effectively. It underlines the fact that the state consisted of multiple, frequently competing layers of authority and power during the period of transition from colonies to nation. Finally, the study of Toronto highlights that the intersections of different state levels (municipal, provincial, imperial, federal) did not constitute an especially monolithic state regulatory response during this period, but rather more of a labyrinth whose changing features could radically affect the individual experiences of migrants during these years.

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